Traditionally, petroleum-based oils and greases have played a dominant role in applications requiring lubrication. However, with applications needing lubrication in extreme conditions, such as high temperature, high pressure, maintenance free systems, and low-emission systems, much emphasis has been placed on the development of effective solid lubricants that can be coated onto a solid surface.
Solid lubricants with layered atomic structures are of great interest because of their self-lubricating properties. Among these solid lubricants, graphite has particularly drawn great attention because it has low coefficient of friction (COF) and is high temperature resistant. However, graphite is hard to stick to a solid substrate such as stainless steel, which significantly limited its applications. The present invention enables graphite and other solid lubricants with layered atomic structures to strongly adhere to a solid substrate and such provide durability and low friction property to the substrate.